Jaipur: Infant mortality rate (IMR) in the state has taken a dip from 65 per 1,000 live births to 41 per 1,000 live births in the past 10 years. Also, under-5 mortality rate (U5MR) has also witnessed a dip of 34 points in the state in the past 10 years from 85 per 1,000 live births to 51 per 1,000 live births, National Family Health Survey-4 (2015-16) has revealed.

The NFHS-3 was conducted in 2005-06. After a gap of 10 years, NFHS-4 (2015-16) has been released recently by the ministry of health. The National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) was launched in the country in 2005 to improve health indicators in different states including Rajasthan. Over the past 11 years of its launch in the state, under NRHM, now National Health Mission, a lot of funds were injected in the state to improve health indicators and reducing IMR was one of the objectives.

According to NFHS -4, there is a vast difference between IMR in rural areas and in the urban areas. Since NRHM was launched to improve health indicators, especially in rural areas but the result of NFHS-4 shows that in rural areas the health department has a long way to go to reduce IMR. In rural areas, IMR is 44 deaths per 1,000 live births. In urban areas of the state, it is 31 deaths per 1,000 live births.

The survey shows that more percentage of women in urban areas is receiving maternal and child care in comparison to their rural counterparts. The difference between urban and rural women in getting maternal treatment indicates that rural women are yet to get the same kind of health facilities which the urban women are getting. Newly appointed health minister Kalicharan Saraf, after taking over the charge, had pointed out that he would work in providing specialised care in rural areas too. The survey shows that in urban areas 74.9% of mothers had antenatal check-up in the first trimester, but in rural areas it is 59.6%. Also, 53.8% of mothers who had at least 4 antenatal care visits in urban areas but it is 34.1% in rural areas.

Mothers who had full antenatal care in urban areas are 25.6% but in rural areas percentage of such women is just 7.4%. Besides, children born at home who were taken to a health facility for check-up within 24 hours of birth is 4.1% in urban areas while in rural areas it is just 0.8%.

Besides, percentage of children in urban areas receiving vaccination against diseases is higher in comparisons to kids in rural areas. NFHS-4 shows that 53.1% of children (12-23 months) are fully immunised but in urban areas, the population of such children is 60.9%.

In the state, field work for NFHS-4 was done from January 23 to July 21, 2016.

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